India.Arie: First of all, thank you for calling me an angel. Where does your spiritual inspiration come from? “But the truth is that it was my message to myself because I was yearning to know the peace of a self-defined life.” Interview with India.Arieĭirk Terpstra: The spiritual message in your music shines so much light on humanity ‘Angel India’. “Putting spiritual and empowerment ideals into music concepts … that’s always been the core message of my music-and it seemed I was talking to others …” says India.Arie. As India.Arie sings on the album’s centerpiece “Break the Shell”: “Child, it’s time to break the shell Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself You cannot fly until you break the shell.” Everything became and sounded more complex, instead of me just being.” “On my last two albums, I felt like I was fighting to grow,” says India.Arie.
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The singer exudes quiet power on the non-apologetic “Life I Know” as well as the empowerment-themed “Just Do You.” With its spare instrumentation, honest and engaging lyrics framed by melodic R&B, SongVersation finds India.Arie coming back full circle to the basics that captivated a global legion of fans on debut albumAcoustic Soul.īut underscoring those basics now is a fervent spirit born out of epiphanies, health imbalances and hard decisions that occurred over the past four years. “Your love is like cocoa butter on my heart … I show you my burns you show me lessons learned,” sings a re-energized India.Arie. Her inner renewal pulsates throughout SongVersation, starting with lead single “Cocoa Butter.” The mid-tempo groove and image-rich verses mirror the soothing balm that is the song’s namesake. It’s a process many of us go through: spiritual maturation, spiritual awakening, clearing out the old and starting anew.” I needed to pull back from the public eye to ground myself and rebuild my life and career. “I’ve struggled most of my career to feel comfortable with how things were, how I was treated, the politics of the music industry. “This is where I’ve been for the last four years,” reflects the singer. Now on the other side of a self-imposed four-year hiatus, India.Arie returns with the most illuminating album of her career: SongVersation. Coming to that realization-let alone taking that crucial first step-can be a daunting endeavor. Sometimes you have to step back to move forward. But before I share Part 1 of my interview with India.Arie, I’ll give you some more background information about her journey and the creation of her latest album. Not so long ago, I enjoyed an incredibly exciting and very personal conversation with R&B singer/songwriter India.Arie.